Qui vitat Molam, vitat Farinam.

No mill, no meal, or, if the noise of the mill offends you, you can have no meal. Who will not work, must not expect to eat, Who would have eggs, must bear the cackling of the hen. If the ground be not tilled, it will produce no grain, or the corn will be choked with weeds. Lutum nisi tundatur, non fit urceus, unless the clay be well pounded and wrought, it cannot be formed into vessels. Nothing valuable is to be produced without industry, «et quid tandem non efficiunt manus,» and to labour and ingenuity, scarcely any thing is impossible.

–––«Thou would'st be great», Lady Macbeth says to her husband,
«Art not without ambition; but without
The illness should attend it: what thou would'st highly,
That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false,
And yet would'st wrongly win».

This, though addressed, and suited particularly to Macbeth, is applicable in its principle to mankind in general. We all of us wish for, and would abound in the conveniences of life, but all have not that energy of mind, which is necessary to set them at work to obtain them. Hence we find in all barbarous, and semi civilised countries, the inhabitants are prone to thieving, as a more compendious way of getting what they desire, than by their labour. Captain Cook, lost his life by attempting to make the people of the Sandwich islands esteem, and punish robbery, as a crime; and we see with what difficulty the propensity is restrained in this, and other countries of Europe, where we are taught from our infancy, and it is made a part of our religion, to refrain from stealing, and where it is prohibited under the severest penalties, in some cases, even to forfeiture of life; yet many daily hazard that punishment, rather than exert themselves to procure what they want by industry: so true it is, that Idleness is the root of all evil, as it is also, that Lazy folks take the most pains, the robber procuring his booty with much greater difficulty and hazard, than it costs the industrious man to obtain what is of equal, or superior value. In India, we are told, there are whole tribes, or communities of robbers, the individuals of which do not shrink from the imputation. The Mahrattas are a nation of robbers, and on what other principle are carried on nearly all the wars of Europe?